Friday, May 12, 2017

Crossing the Line

Edward Jonas, Chairman

A university art student recently called
my studio to inquire if I mentor student artists in sculpture. I replied yes, that
I have and do mentor students, not only for sculpture but for all disciplines
of art.I told him the first step is to
bring his drawing notebooks to the studio so I could evaluate if his skill
level was at a point that he was ready for a mentor. In a surprised voice he said, “but don’t you want to see my
sculptures, painting doesn’t interest me and so I don’t really do much drawing,
I just make notes and then sculpt!”Not being a person to turn their back on
any art student asking for help, I agreed to look at the photographs of his
sculptures.

Within the first few minutes of our
meeting, my initial hesitation was confirmed and even though the student was
very sincere and personable, the work itself was painfully weak.It seemed thrown together lacking any sense
of movement, design or purpose. Seeing
the concern on my face he started asking, “Is the surface too shiny, what if I
had painted it instead? Maybe if I put it up on a better base?”The honest truth had to be faced.To think that one color, placement or surface
treatment gives a work fine art value is far too simplistic. So I said, "Look, you can’t or at least you
think you can’t draw, and in my view, that is a major handicap for an aspiring
artist as it leaves you without a vital tool to record and develop your
ideas.You could continue to go on
welding, shaping and assembling materials geared, perhaps, for the decorative
or architectural market and become quite skilled in your craftsmanship.”

I wanted him to understand I wasn’t
saying if he continued on this path he wouldn't be successful and able to
develop a healthy business from his work, but craft alone is only part of being
an artist.An approach of bouncing from
big idea to the next without any connections leaves little chance of aesthetic
growth potential, and I believe that is central to the goals in fine art.The real power in art is in the statement,
that underlying fundamental idea that speaks from the work.Good craftsmanship can aid in the visual
appeal of the work but it is the profundity of the message that gives value.

As an example for the student, I
suggested that if you asked a person on the street to name a famous sculptor
you would soon hear the name Michelangelo.So well-known is Michelangelo’s over-thirteen
foot marble statue, David, it has come to symbolize not only the city of Florence but the whole of the Italian High
Renaissance period.Michelangelo saw
himself primarily as a “sculptor,” so it is not surprising to see it listed
first after his name, followed by other disciplines in which he excelled such
as “painter, architect and poet.” When
you study all the work extant today from the 16th Century, even
though it is the “major” projects that garner the attention, it is his drawings
that are by far more numerous.

Above all other creative activities,
this great master artist spent most of his time drawing.In fact, it was his lifetime habit to start
every project with an initial number of studies, as he worked through various
changes and alterations to an idea.Michelangelo
would use any surface available at the time, sometimes it was the edge of a
larger drawing or even the back, and when there was no paper he would resort to
drawing on the walls.Michelangelo
always considered these drawings as only “sketches” rather than “finished”
works, but consider if he drew on a daily basis throughout his 77-year
professional career; how many of these priceless works there would have
been?I can imagine that the number
would have been in the thousands, but today only a little over 600 of these
sketches remain.Fame had made
Michelangelo a guarded man who was fanatically careful about protecting his
ideas from his competitors, so whenever he left a studio, he would write or
leave word for the house staff to gather all the drawings in his studio and
burn them.Once it took two days to
complete such a request.

Happily there are those artists who are
not so haunted and take pleasure in generously sharing their sketches, studies
and color notes in the hope it will clarify how artists work towards developing
an idea.

Everett Raymond Kinstler, like
Michelangelo, has made it a habit throughout his 70 plus -year career of making
sketches and thumbnails for each new work.These studies are a proven observational method for artists to identify
those features and mannerisms that are unique in each subjects’ persona.

Kinstler’s portrait of Mercury 7 AstronautScott
Carpenter is a great example of how those earlier sketches helped set
the tone in the final painting.As an
artist makes these lines and shapes, he or she is creating a memory of the key
aspects that make up their sitter's character.On the shelves of Kinstler’s studio sits several volumes of his
sketchbooks that have recently been assembled into a book titled Impressions & Observations: The
Sketchbooks of Everett Raymond Kinstler.Many of these images have never been seen before and gives the
reader a peek into his creative process.

Alexandra Tyng is a highly
accomplished artist, and recently shared with me how she works out the complex
compositional balance of figures and space for her large narrative paintings.Her 56 inch by 48 inch oil painting, Possible Spaces, is about a time in her
life when she had the opportunity to rehab an abandoned old house with a friend.Alex worked out the development of her idea by
starting with thumbnail sketches, then exploring different placements and
combinations.She was very dissatisfied
with her first sketch as the elements were much too literal (measuring tape and
paint brush).The second composition is
starting to get the atmosphere and feeling she wanted to portray.In the third sketch she is beginning to firm
up her composition, switching the placement of the figures, facing slightly
outward and away from each other.Alex
underscores the importance of finding this compositional balance when she
stated, “A slight change can make a huge difference in conveying an idea or
emotion.”

Painting and sculpture are like sibling
disciplines and the parent to both is drawing, and every good painting starts
with good drawing skills.Another way to
consider sculpture is that it is drawing in dimensional space.But no matter what you want to do in art, drawing is where you must start.

1 comment:

If you have a minute, I’d really appreciate it if you took a look at Emily’s Virtual Rocket. This is a serious newsblog which has been taken from e-newspapers and e-magazines from around the world, with an emphasis on transgender issues. Also, with his election, I look for articles which critique Donald Trump.

I hope you enjoy this. Please paste the following:

emilysvirtualrocket.blogspot.com

If you like it, please consider putting it among your favorite blogs. I would greatly appreciate it.

Pages

Search

Who We Are

The Portrait Society was formed in 1998 as a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to increase aesthetic and technical knowledge of the practicing portrait artist, agents, students and the general public. We host educational events, workshops and conferences; produce literature and other educational media; connect communities of artists and work to support artists through a range of programs and services.